1. Technical Field
The present teaching relates to methods for data processing. More specifically, the present teaching relates to methods for 3D data processing, visualization, and manipulation.
2. Description of Related Art
To explore dense 3D data set such as 3D volumes from medical scanning devices like CT or MR, cross sectional slices are usually used. In most of the nowadays applications, slices aligned with coordinate axes are generated as three orthogonal views to facilitate exploring the 3D volume. However, sometimes the slices along these angles may not reveal features users expect to see. in these situations, oblique or double-oblique angle slices are then needed. However, how to allow a user to effectively determine the location of the oblique or double-oblique slice is a non-trivial task.
To determine the location of an oblique or double-oblique slice is to determine the orientation and position of a plane in a 3D space. There are six degree of freedom (DOF) associated with an orientation and position of a plane. Some of the 3D input devices can provide information specifying six degrees of freedom instantly. However, in the current computer environment, the keyboard, mouse and two-dimensional (2D) screen may still be the most ubiquitous input and output devices. The mouse used in those environments is a two DOF device. How can one utilize such a device to accomplish a six DOF action is a challenge. Some applications implement each degree of freedom as a slider control. User may adjust each slider to change the value of each degree of freedom. However, this approach is very non-intuitive, time consuming, and difficult to use. The other approach is to provide three orthogonal axis-aligned views and the intersection lines of the 3D plane with these three orthogonal planes. Users may drag or rotate these intersection lines to define the new orientation and position of the 3D plane. Since a user can see the underlying image in each view, it is also easier for user to move the plane to the desired location. However, this approach still requires that a user imagine the spatial relationship of the plane with the orthogonal planes which is not straightforward and it is hard to define a double-oblique plane. Due to drawbacks in the aforementioned approaches, a more direct and intuitive solution is needed.